Psionic (Classic Journeys Era)
The ability to use the mind to affect something outside its scope is generically referred to as psionics. The three types of psionics are psychic, telepathic, and psychokinetic. These in turn are used to discern events, to interact with other minds, and to interact with the physical world. Psychic The psionic ability to know facts about the world that could not otherwise be gleaned from available data is referred to as psychic. This can also manifest in knowledge of events before they occur. Races that manifest psychic abilities include Mystics and Timonae. Psychokinetic The psionic ability to use one's mind to effect physical change on the outside world is referred to as psychokinetic. Races in OtherSpace with these abilities include Centaurans, Vollistans, and some rare Mystics. Psychokinetic abilities can include pushing and pulling objects, levitation (pulling and pushing against the ground), and raising or lowering temperatures. Psychokinetic actions can only be performed on directly perceived objects, with the exception of levitation when the general direction of the ground is known. Telepathic Telepathic abilities are mind-to-mind communication involving one or more telepaths. Races in Otherspace with at least some telepathic abilities include B'hiri, Castori, Centaurans, G'ahnli, Kamir, Maltarians, Mekke, Mystics, Theorians, Vollistans, and very rare Timonae. Lotorians and Phyrrians cannot participate in telepathy at all. Telepathic talents are divided into telepathy and empathy. Depending on context or experience, non-telepaths who recieve telepathy or empathy may or may not be able to tell that the thoughts or emotions originated from outside themselves. Telepathic beings can typically create a 'mind shield' to protect themselves from or attenuate unwanted intrusions such as the emotions of a crowd. While they can (and often do) withhold information, it is extremely difficult and unusual for one telepathic being to hide such an omission from or attempt an outright lie to another. Telepathy Telepathy can take the form of perceptions, meanings, or words and can take place through 'broadcast' or 'link'. Telepathic broadcast occurs when a telepath wishes to send a message to everyone in the vicinity or when a non-telepath (voluntarily or involuntarily) has a 'loud thought'. A telepathic link can only be initiated by a telepath who is either directly perceiving or familiar with the other person. Proximity, willingness, and ability can increase the chance of a link forming. Once established, the link continues until something (such as unconsciousness or FTL travel) breaks it. The effectiveness of communication with a non-telepath depends mostly on the strength of the telepath, though an experienced or strong-willed non-telepath might be able to help or hinder it. Neither broadcast nor linked telepathy can ordinarily be used to extract thoughts from a person's mind that the person is not currently experiencing. This skill requires a great deal of strength and experience. Empathy Empathy is the ability to share, perceive, and project emotion, general mental state, and other information that might be otherwise conveyed by gesture, posture, or facial expression. As with telepathy, empathy can take the form of broadcasting or a link. Most sentient beings normally broadcast their emotions. This can be received by empaths in close proximity to them. Those sentient beings can also perceive a broadcast made by an empath. Empathy can also be used along with an already-formed telepathic link. This enables the participants to share both thoughts and emotions. Empathy can sometimes be used to determine if someone is concentrating hard (as if inventing or deciding to tell a lie) or if someone is anxious (such as about a deception being revealed), but as with a polygraph machine, empathy cannot determine with absolute certainty the cause of the emotion or the truth or falsehood in someone's words. Other telepathic abilities Some telepathic beings may have special abilities and skills, such as the ability to temporarily paralyze voluntary muscle control, to cause sleepiness or wakefulness, to cause mental damage, or to repair mental damage. Roleplay notes for telepathic abilities * The 'mind shield' of telepaths and the careful control of one's mental processes in non-telepaths are both represented by the coded skill Mental Discipline * The content of telepathic actions must be @emit'ted, so that all players in the room can enjoy reading them. Telepathy can only be hidden from other players if everyone in the scene agrees to this. * Players may not roleplay their telepathic characters 'taking' thoughts from unwilling characters. * The standard rules for posing still apply: no pose-stomping, meta-gaming, or powergaming. Category:Classic OtherSpace Psionic Category:Encyclopedia Intergalactica